“Sing unto the Lord, bless His name; shew forth His salvation day to day.”

Psalms 96:2

Of course we are not Gods and Judges to say that homosexuals and lesbians will be damned, but we are sure that salvation is always open for them. This is what the gospel stands for – a good news to everyone. “There is one lawgiver, who is able to save and to destroy: who art thou that judgest another?”, says James, so we don’t have any right to judge another especially when that person is outside of our faith. “But them that are without God judgeth” according to Paul. Christ, during His earthly ministry, didn’t judged those people that considered by the society as wicked and unclean, but rather let Himself acquainted with them and befriend with them. But today’s Christians, unlike the Lord, are very quick in judging people particularly when they noticed someone whose actions are not in parallel to their gender, and as a matter of fact, they discriminate them openly. This isn’t Christ’s representation.

Of course, homosexuals can be saved. God is so near to everybody and He is so much powerful to save even the vilest person in the surface of the earth. The only thing that must exist within man is his WILLINGNESS – willingness to welcome God’s willingness to save him. Gays and lesbians can be saved… if he/she want to. For them, Christ came as a physician, and for them His blood poured out on the cross. And by this precious blood, every sinners may be cleared and every believing soul may be justified. Paul said;

“Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind,

And such were some of you: but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.” (I Corinthians 6:9-11)

Unrighteousness makes a person to be damned, thus he/she must be saved from it, and it is only by the blood of Christ that they can be saved from it. This is what happened to those believers in Corinthians, including their homosexuals. They believed and then they were washed and justified. And as they were saved from their unrighteousness, they’re no longer live with it but instead lived in a justified and sanctified life. Maybe their actions are gentle as a virgin or maybe their voices are soft as lady (which I think naturally comes out from them), but in their heart they sing a song of praise and thanksgiving to the Lord, worshiping His name and departing from those unrighteousness where they were saved from.

Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. (Philippians 2:12)

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“Yes. I’m already saved.“, this was the bold reply of a friend of mine when I asked her about salvation, seeming that she received a limitless passport to heaven on the day she accepted Christ as her personal Lord and Savior. Carmela, that friend of mine, was just one of those people who have been planted by this kind of false hope as they listen to the preaching of some Born Again and Evangelical pastors who made salvation as a simple statement of mouth.

Like her, many Born Again and Evangelical members believe that in order to be saved, the only thing which we should do is to accept Jesus Christ as Lord and personal Savior by faith. And once you accepted Him through faith, you have now an assured salvation in heaven. No need of good works or following the commandments of God, but through faith alone, we will be saved according to them.

Sorry to say this, but I think this kind of belief is not just unbiblical but shameful, careless and dirty in its entire content. Imagine a person who thinks he was already saved and destined to heaven no matter what he will do, whether he do evil or not. Remember what happened in LA Fitness Gym in Pennsylvania on August 4, 2009? When a man named George Sodini fired 50 rounds into an aerobic class before turning the gun on himself. The shooting resulted four deaths (including Sodini himself) and nine injured. George Sodini was a member of the Tetelestai Church where he sat quietly for many years, listening to the deceptions of his preacher. Talking about the pastor of his Church, Sodini wrote in his blog dated Dec. 31, 2008,

“Maybe soon, I will see God and Jesus. At least that is what I was told. Eternal life does NOT depend on works. If it did, we will all be in hell. Christ paid for every sin, so how can I or you be judged by GOD for a sin when the penalty was already paid. People judge but that does not matter. I was reading the Bible and The Integrity of God beginning yesterday, because soon I will see them.

Excerpt From Sodini's Blog

After the horrible incident in Pennsylvania, Pastor Knapp’s deacon, Jack Rickard commented on Sodini’s death and said;

“George is going to heaven, but he’s not going to get his rewards,” (SOURCE )

Kenneth Nally, another believer of this unscrupulous doctrine, committed suicide in 1980 after he was taught that even self-murder would not stop a person once saved from going to heaven. Definitely! This kind of belief would reclaim many people to Satan, the author of all lies and abominations.

I also remembered a certain time when I tried to ask a Born Again pastor who preaches about the assured salvation. I asked him, “Pastor. If doing good works is unnecessary for salvation so that I decided to cease from giving my tithes, am I still saved?” The pastor answered and said, “Definitely not, son. If you will cease from giving your tithes and offerings, you will become a robber, because the Bible said, ‘ye rob God’.” See??? Born Again and many Baptist and Evangelical pastors who hold this kind of shameful doctrine are just after to our tithes! They don’t care about our salvation. They don’t care whether we will become evil or not, but what matters most is our money. They telling their members that in salvation, good works are unnecessary things, except the giving of tithes and donations!

Born Again and Baptist preachers founded this kind of unscrupulous belief by misunderstanding the Pauline text mentioned in Ephesians, where it says;

For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:

Not of works, lest any man should boast. (Ephesians 2:8,9)

If we will meticulously read the verses, which many illogical Evangelical and Baptists preachers misunderstood, we will notice that the salvation mentioned here by Paul was written in past tense, signifying that this kind of salvation was already a past experience. What was that experience? From what they were saved? In verse 5 it says;

Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;)

Before they became Christians, believers in Ephesus are chained in darkness and in sins. They are pagans and victims of evil rulers of darkness. Paul said; That at that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world. (verse 12). From this state, they were saved. Since they are in darkness of ignorance, and that they don’t any knowledge about the truth, of course, they don’t need to work to be saved. In the first place, what kind of work they must do if they were ignorant about truth? Any work done outside the truth means personal works and personal righteousness, and these are the works that are unnecessary to be saved from sins. Salvation from sin is a gift from God. It is through faith alone and no need of any work SINCE they are ignorant about the truth. Thus, Paul stated;

For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God.

Sadly to say, many Evangelical pastors mis-interpreted the Ephesian texts. They neglected to read the following verses that would defy their careless interpretation. Paul said;

For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them. (v.10)

From the power of darkness and sins, people are transferred into the kingdom of the Son in light through the grace of God. Paul said,

“Giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light:

Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son.(Colossians 1:12,13)

And again,

For ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord: walk as children of light: (Ephesians 5:8)

Now that we are in the light, we should not make ourselves idle. We must work with God. We must work in the light where we were translated. Paul said to Timothy;

All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness:

That the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works; (II Timothy 3:16,17)

We cannot do anything for God if we are still in darkness. And everything we will do to save ourselves, without the workings of God in our lives, are all in vain. But God translated us into the light of His Son so that we will able to work for salvation. This same experience happened to the Ephesians after they were saved from sins. The book of Revelation declared unto them;

I know thy works, and thy labour, and thy patience, and how thou canst not bear them which are evil: and thou hast tried them which say they are apostles, and are not, and hast found them liars:

And hast borne, and hast patience, and for my name’s sake hast laboured, and hast not fainted.

Nevertheless I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love.

Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works; or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will remove thy candlestick out of his place, except thou repent. (Revelations 2:2-5)

Paul himself testified that Christians must not let themselves to become idle. He said in his epistle;

For I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand.

I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith:

Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing. (II Timothy 6-8)

Christians should finish their course. We should do our assignments. Unless we finished the track prepared before us by God, we will never receive the crown of life that awaits us in heaven.

Before I end this article, I’m challenging all pastors who preach about the assured salvation. Prove to me that Paul was mistaken when he said;

Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. (Philippians 2:12)

And for Christians, particularly those who had been deceived by false salvation that Born Again and Evangelical pastors preached to you, READ YOUR BIBLE. Discover the deepest part of salvation taught by the gospel. Do not be lazy, and do not let these pastors of hell to exploit your pockets and then finally bring you into perdition.

If there is a question that I may regard as the most beautiful question that I have heard, that would be this – WHAT IS THE PURPOSE OF

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LIFE? If we are referring about life on earth, I will say that there are two lives mentioned in the Bible. The first is the temporary life that we have on this earth and the next is the everlasting life that will be given after the Resurrection. Concerning to the question, the best answer that we can find was written in the book of Ecclesiastes, where it says,

Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man. For God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil. (Ecclesiastes 12:13-14)

The Bible said, “Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter.” That denotes the conclusion of everything that exist, everything we do, everything we enjoy in this life, everything that we have, every resources that God given to us, the conclusion is this – that we have to fear God and keep his commandments for it is the whole duty of man. There is no other reason of having in this life but to acknowledge our God, after all, He is our Maker, He is our provider, and He is our judge. The most important thing is to acknowledge the existence of the Great Creator who have created us and to do His will so that we will enjoy the eternal life after the Resurrection. Actually, life is worthless if we just have every riches in this world and then later on we cannot bring them in grave. Let us say that you have 50 million hectares of land and your land titles are taller than you when they are accumulated, but in the end one square meter will be only left to you. What are you going to do with acres upon acres or hectares upon hectares of land that you have accumulated and the vast wealth that you have accumulated for yourself through rightful or wrong way of acquiring them, if in the end it will prejudice your salvation, your knowledge and your belief in God? A person who have everything in this world feels that he doesn’t need anymore or the services of other people, and most of the time he feels he doesn’t need God anymore for he feels that he was very much stable compared to the poor who always pray to God just for a breakfast as his only hope is his belief in God. Minus God then everything is in vain. Without God life is nothing. Many questions will be left unanswered. But if we have God in our lives, then everything will be solved in His coming judgement.

There are different interpretations given by man regarding life. Many people say that life is a field where we need to survive by overcoming pain, sufferings, hardship and emotional distress. For some, life is heaven when we achieved our goals and the dreams that we aimed. And for others, life is wonderful if we have our loved ones like family, friends, or somebody who is so special to our heart. Hence, the definition of life depends on how a person lives upon it with the help of those things surrounding him. But if we will look at it in biblical perspective and with our own spiritual comprehension, we cannot say that life on earth, whether rich or poor, is truly a real life. Here, we feel the pain, acquire sickness and then die. When we say life, it should be a real life, and death cannot be a part of it. Death is the opposite of life. Anything that degrades life, whether it’s physical or emotional, cannot contain its essence. Hence, the Bible said;

“By doing this they will be storing up their treasure as a good foundation for the future so that they may take hold of real life. “(I Timothy 6:19)

Yes, there is a real life. WE cannot say that this is a white paper if this paper was stained even by a little amount of blood or, we cannot say that this is a white board if it was spotted even by little of different color. The same if life suffers death and pain. Real life is a kind of life free from corruption, everlasting in existence and pure in its nature. And we cannot find genuine and perfect life here on earth but only in Christ, who is at the side of the Father.

(For the life was manifested, and we have seen [it], and bear witness, and shew unto you that eternal life, which was with the Father, and was manifested unto us;) (I John 1:2)

But God brought us in this world that we ourselves will look for the life He promised through His Son. By His words and commandments, we can able to learn how to attain such perfect life, and by the freedom that God vested upon us, we can choose it or forsake it. God said;

I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live: (Deuteronomy 30:19)

Life in this world is so short. We are lucky enough if we reached 50. So we should not devote this very little time in seeking our own pleasures, money, lust, enjoyment, and anything that satisfies us temporarily. God gave us a short but enough time to seek that genuine life which He wants for us. He sent His Beloved Son to make our search easier and fruitful. Following the footsteps of Christ is the most comfortable path to eternal life. All we have to do is choose. Which one; life or death?